The Cure of Souls

In one of his books, J.B. Phillips, author of the popular translation of the New Testament that bears his name, quotes the American essayist David Grayson. Following a stay in hospital, Grayson reflected on the experience in a little book called Adventures in Solitude. Here's the quotation:

As I thought during those long days, it seemed to me that the hospital cherishes a spirit, or an attitude, that the Church sadly lacks. I felt in it a respect for the human body and for the human life beyond that in the Church, as it stands today, for the spirit of man.

The hospital diagnoses before it prescribes; the Church prescribes before it diagnoses. The physician stands humble before the human body, studies it, doubts about it, wonders at it; labors to fit his remedies to the exact disease. Is there in any church an equivalent humility in the presence of the spirit of man? Is the priest willing to inquire and doubt and wonder? Does he know before he tries to cure?

Obviously, Grayson wrote before the small matter of insurance had come to dominate health-care; and he'd clearly never seen an episode of House, where the tormented physician treats just about everyone like dirt. Nevertheless, it's easy to see what he means. Phillips writes that the phrase "the Church prescribes before it it diagnoses" haunts him. It haunts me, too. There is a world of difference between proclaiming the simple Gospel and spouting simplistic dogma. The witness of the Church is harmed by those who fail to listen, who are too ready to tell all and sundry exactly what is wrong without even the courtesy of allowing the other to speak.

Of course, in terms of the sickness unto death that afflicts us all, there can only be one prescription. Eternal death, the result of our rebellion, can only be countered by eternal life, the gift of God through the sacrifice of Christ, appropriated by faith. However, there are many ailments beyond that basic disease. There are different words for different conditions. Just bawling "Jesus saves" doesn't really help when the ailment looms large. A soul tortured by remorse needs a quite different approach than the blustering bully who must learn to bow before the majesty of God.

What do we learn? That the privilege of sharing Christ must be preceded by the building of relationship, and especially by a readiness to listen. And having listened we will be careful to seek God's guidance. There are many tools available in the Word, but they must be selected with care and used with skill. As Phillips says, "the souls of men are delicate and complex affairs and their spiritual needs are never going to be met by mass prescription."

From Darkness Deliver Us

I remember Justin Webb as a fresh-faced young reporter with a slight lisp. An interesting, well-educated, and articulate man, Webb is employed as a special correspondent by that most venerable of institutions, the British Broadcasting Corporation.

For the last eight years, Justin Webb has been the BBC's North America editor, based in Washington, D.C. Over the summer he is due to return to the United Kingdom to take up a new appointment. Last weekend, on Radio 4, Webb reflected upon his time in the United States, and upon his imminent return to South London, in a broadcast entitled "Checking out of 'Hotel America.'" His words were subsequently posted on the BBC's website (see below).

It's clear that Webb has developed a great affection for the United States, (even though he has to pretend that no one ever lived in his home in order to sell it, and even though many Americans don't understand his humor). Webb admires the unbounded optimism of the American people, and the ability to change one's circumstances. It's not true that America is the only place in the world where a young girl in a Bronx housing project can dream of a career in the Law and end up on the Supreme Court, but that kind of transformation does seem more likely in the US. There is still a 'can do' attitude in America that is, frankly, refreshing to those of us who grew up with the social stratification of Old Europe. Webb admires that attitude. So do I. Webb's young daughter has already announced that, when she is old enough, she's moving back!

Social mobility, though, according to Webb, needs the dark underside of American culture because people need something from which to escape. Without the stark awfulness of some aspects of American life the dream would cease to exist. Webb witnessed the dark side on a trip to South Carolina, to an area be-devilled by tattoo parlors and pawn shops, gun stores and the Piggly-Wiggly (which, he says, "smells almost as odd as it sounds.") For Webb the downside of America is its ugliness - Doric columns made of cheap concrete, "encroaching into palm forests with no hint of apology." It is also to be seen in the hypocritical, small-minded, intellectual ugliness of American religion.

While in South Carolina, Webb met Governor Mark Sanford, with whom he was singularly unimpressed.

According to Webb, Sanford is "another quintessentially American phenomenon. A politician mired in Bible-laced hypocricy." Sanford, a conservative Republican who lived in some sort of Christian felowship house in Washington, disappeared earlier this year. He was in Argentina conducting an affair with a young lady while pretending to be hiking in Appalachia. Some of his trips to that country were, allegedly, paid for by the tax payers of South Carolina.

Exhibit two for Justin Webb is Kara Neumann from Wisconsin, an eleven year old girl suffering from type-one diabetes who, when she was diagnosed with an auto-immune condition, was not taken to the dosctor but to the preacher. Instead of medicine the little girl received prayer. She died. Quite rightly, Webb deplores the unnecessary suffering and loss of life. However, his conclusion extends well beyond a single case. He declares that he also deplores "the Stone Age superstition that stalks the richest and most technologically advanced nation on earth."

It's a shame that Webb's journalistic objectivity (trumpeted by the BBC but so little in evidence in recent years) does not allow him to see the vast amount of social welfare undertaken by the church, the millions of volunteer hours, or the generosity in response to disaster that regularly dwarfs the efforts of the Federal government. Webb plays the old trick - he picks up on isolated incidents and draws conclusions out of all proportion to the evidence. Sanford is a hypocrite, therefore all Christians are hypocrites. Kara Neumann's family does not understand that modern medicine is a gift from God, and that science and faith are not incompatible alternatives, therefore all Christians are mired in ignorance, only one step above the dark ages.

Of course it is nonsense. It is cultural arrogance. It is also poor journalism. Could it not possibly be that there is a link between the social mobility of American society at its best, and a theology that understands us all to have been made in the image of God? And could it not be, also, that as Justin Webb returns to secular England he will encounter a darkness far greater than that to be found in the salt marshes of South Carolina?

Justin Webb's article can be found at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8176448.stm